I was born and raised in the suburbs of Dayton, Ohio. I started writing fanzines in high school and have continued doing so. Among them: Coed Naked Sex!, Lemonade, and most recently, Stubs 2001-2010.

I left Dayton to go to college at Columbia, and then moved to Berkeley to go to law school. After six years of working as a litigation attorney for labor unions, I went to UC Irvine to get an MFA in fiction writing. My essays and fiction have appeared in The Normal School, The Southern Humanities Review, Fourteen Hills, and other publications.

I live in Maryland with my family.

Follow on Instagram: @johnjaewon